BONNE TERRE, Mo. — A Missouri man who killed his girlfriend and her 2-year-old daughter with a butcher knife was put to death Tuesday.

Richard Strong, 48, was executed at the state prison in Bonne Terre for the deaths of Eva Washington and her daughter, Zandrea Thomas, more than 14 years ago. He was the fourth man to die by injection in Missouri this year and the 16th since November 2013. Only Texas has executed more inmates over that span.

“Jehovah-Jireh, you’re my provider. Your grace is sufficient for me. Forgive me for my sin,” Strong said in his final statement, according to corrections officials.

During the execution, he breathed deeply several times and briefly raised his head from the gurney pillow before becoming motionless. He was pronounced dead at 6:58 p.m. CDT.

No family members or other witnesses attended the execution on Strong’s behalf. Strong met earlier Tuesday with his mother, brother, sister-in-law and two daughters, but none of them witnessed his punishment.

Washington’s sister, Virgil Samant, who witnessed the execution, said she might feel compassion for Strong someday, “but for now I don’t give a damn. He can rot in hell.”

AP Photo/Pat SullivanThis photo taken May 27, 2008 file photo shows the gurney in Huntsville, Texas, the only state to have executed more people than Missouri in recent years.

The bodies of Washington and her daughter were found in October 2000 in Washington’s apartment in the St. Louis suburb of St. Ann. A large butcher knife was found on a bed next to a pool of blood. Strong and Washington’s daughter together, 3-month-old Alyshia Strong, was also on the bed, but wasn’t harmed.

Associated PressBottles of the sedative midazolam at a hospital pharmacy in Oklahoma, where executions using the drug have recently gone awry. Officials in Texas and Missouri, two of the most active death penalty places, are confident in the use of their single drug pentobarbital.

St. Ann police received an emergency call from Washington’s apartment on Oct. 23, 2000, and heard a scream during it. Officers headed to the apartment, where Strong met them outside. He initially told them Washington was sleeping, then said she had gone to work.

Officers saw blood stains on his hand, and Strong tried to run. When they caught him, he admitted to the killings.

Inside, police found the bodies and the unharmed 3-month-old.

Strong’s attorney, Jennifer Herndon, said both Strong and Washington suffered from mental illness and frequently argued.

“He just snapped,” Herndon said. “It was just sort of a powder keg waiting to explode. It wasn’t a healthy relationship.”

I know some people probably wonder how I can have a relationship with my father given that he killed my mother, but we are very close

Alyshia Strong was taken in by Strong’s mother. Despite the killings, she grew close to her father, frequently visiting him in prison. A clemency request to Gov. Jay Nixon relied heavily on Alyshia’s words describing the importance of her father in her life.

“I know some people probably wonder how I can have a relationship with my father given that he killed my mother, but we are very close,” the girl, now 14, wrote.

“I understand that my father needs to face consequences and to pay for what he did, but I do not think it is right for me to lose my father as part of the punishment,” she added.

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On Monday, in an interview with The Associated Press, she said, “I’ve never been angry with my dad and I’ve learned to forgive.”

Strong’s fate was sealed when Nixon declined the clemency request and the U.S. Supreme Court refused to intervene. The defence had asked the court to halt the execution because Strong was mentally ill, suffering from severe depression.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/forgive-me-for-my-sin-missouri-man-executed-for-killing-girlfriend-and-her-toddler-with-butcher-knife/feed0stdMissouri ExecutionAP Photo/Pat SullivanAssociated PressHe was suspected of keeping a woman in a box for 4 months. 3 weeks after she escaped, he was suspected of shooting her dead. Now he’s on the runhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/he-was-suspected-of-keeping-a-woman-in-a-box-for-4-months-3-weeks-after-she-escaped-he-was-suspected-of-shooting-her-dead-now-hes-on-the-run
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/he-was-suspected-of-keeping-a-woman-in-a-box-for-4-months-3-weeks-after-she-escaped-he-was-suspected-of-shooting-her-dead-now-hes-on-the-run#commentsFri, 22 May 2015 14:07:04 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=778313

SEDALIA, Mo. — The hunt for a registered sex offender suspected of killing his ex-girlfriend and her son intensified Thursday after police raided but failed to find anyone inside a home in western Missouri, where the man was charged last month for allegedly keeping the woman confined in a wooden box.

Sandra Kay Sutton, 46, and her 17-year-old son, Zachary Wade Sutton, were found dead early Thursday morning in a relative’s home in Clinton. Both victims appear to have been shot overnight, while Sutton’s relatives were at work, Clinton police Lt. Sonny Lynch said.

Police have been searching for her former boyfriend, James Barton Horn Jr., since he was charged with kidnapping three weeks ago. Investigators allege he kept Sandra Sutton in a wooden box off-and-on for four months at the same home they searched Thursday in Sedalia, about 45 miles northeast of Clinton.

Horn, who served time in prison for a kidnapping and sexual attack, disappeared before police could arrest him on the kidnapping charge. Lynch said Horn is “absolutely” a suspect in the deaths.

Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via APA tactical team member from the Missouri Highway Patrol monitors a house in Sedalia, Mo. Thursday, May 21, 2015 where police say a suspect in the slayings of Sandra Kay Sutton and her son Zachary Wade Sutton has taken shelter. The Suttons were found dead earlier Thursday in Clinton, Mo. The police raided but failed to find anyone inside the home.

A police officer found a car that Sandra Sutton had used outside a hospital in Sedalia, Lynch said. Surveillance video from the hospital showed a man authorities believe was Horn walking away from the car and toward nearby houses at 4:15 a.m., the lieutenant said.

One of the houses, a few blocks from the hospital, was where Horn allegedly kept Sutton confined in the box. Sedalia police cordoned off that home, where they thought Horn might have been hiding. They surrounded the home for hours, calling to Horn to come out and deploying a robot to search the area, but officers found no one once they went inside, said Sgt. Bill Lowe of the Missouri State Highway Patrol.

They also searched two unoccupied homes nearby.

Federal authorities also are helping search for Horn, who is currently under the supervision of federal probation officers.

Lynch warned that Horn was an “extremely dangerous, violent person,” and that anyone providing him shelter could face charges if they were aware of the pending kidnapping charges. He said Clinton authorities were unaware Sutton was staying in the area, and that court documents don’t indicate she sought any protective orders again Horn.

Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via APSedalia police officers are on alert Thursday, May 21, 2015, at a standoff in Sedalia, Mo

Sutton told police in late April that Horn had threatened her in a car with a “tire jack” after an argument in January. When they returned home, he began building a wooden structure, and she had to help with its construction, according to a probable cause statement filed by Sedalia police.

Sutton was allowed to leave the box in the evenings when Barton returned home from work, according to court documents.

Police said the box was kept in a bedroom and contained a bucket full of urine and feces. The box, which investigators said was 100 inches long, 48 inches wide and 52 inches tall, also contained several layers of insulation, padding and sleeping bags, and a small air hole.

Sutton escaped April 30 and ran to the home of a neighbour who called police — but Horn was gone by the time police arrived.

A neighbour, Roeanna Wright, said she saw Sutton crouch down after running from the couple’s home in April. Her husband, Lloyd Wright, said she looked panicked, adding: “She was crouched down like she was trying to hide when she ran.”

Jill Toyoshiba/The Kansas City Star via APA Sedalia police officer was on alert Thursday, May 21, 2015, at a standoff in Sedalia, Mo. where police believed they had a suspect in the slayings of Sandra Sutton and her teenage son Zachary Wade Sutton.

Horn served about three years in prison in Tennessee in the early 1990s in connection with a kidnapping and sexual attack. Records also show he pleaded guilty in 1997 in Mississippi to unlawfully kidnapping and abducting his estranged wife. He was sentenced in that case to 12 years and 11 months in prison, plus five years supervised release.

He was released from custody in December 2011, and his probation jurisdiction was transferred in 2012 to Missouri, according to online court records. He was still under federal supervision, said Chad Lamar, spokesman for the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Mississippi.

“There has been an effort to locate him on the local, state and federal level,” Lamar said Thursday.

I read a recent National Post editorial urging police forces to adopt body worn cameras (BWCs) as standard equipment with great interest. I truly believe that BWCs can be an effective tool to bring clarity to some contentious interactions between the police and the public. There are risks, however, to the assumption by some that BWCs will be a saving grace for all.

Following the public outcry after the fatal police shooting of unarmed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri last fall, many anti-police and some pro-police pundits have asserted the need for all police officers to wear BWCs to improve police accountability and to better assure the public as to the legitimacy of police use of force.

Many episodes where members of the public have been killed by police have been recorded on public videos, taken from a variety of angles, and/or in some instances captured on police BWCs, but not all.

A resounding hue and cry was heard in North Charleston, South Carolina, on April 4, 2015, after a public video surfaced of Walter Scott being fatally shot in the back while running from police officer Michael Slager, who soon claimed that Scott had tried to take his police Taser. Critics expressed valid fear that, if not for the video recording made by a witness, Slager may well have been believed. The local mayor immediately announced that BWCs would be purchased for all officers, presumably to ensure that all future incidents will be recorded, thereby easing public tension.

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It appears inevitable that police departments across the continent will have to deploy BWCs soon. However there are cons to this technology, including no guarantee that it will always capture the right images to prove or disprove officer and witness accounts.

BWCs are undoubtedly a tool for police that may produce digital evidence of such confrontations and other events for investigative and/or court purposes; enhance police accountability while increasing public trust; reduce public complaints and expedite related investigations; and likely lead to better behaviour from both citizens and officers when interacting. But to assume that BWCs will provide unwavering validation in every case of police use of force, is grossly unrealistic in my view.

Despite the potential benefits, there are numerous concerns with BWCs among police officials, as well as with privacy advocates.

Technology acquisition and ongoing maintenance; training; data storage and management expenses, will all be net new costs to most police services. The required software and ancillary equipment will be proprietary and costly. This flies in the face of ongoing public and political concerns regarding the current realities of rising policing costs.

When there is no known incident or public complaint to warrant the seizure of the BWC data immediately, how long should police departments store the data?

Privacy concerns are significant. When to turn on, off or pause the BWCs; unaware people passing through the camera’s field of view or within ear shot of the microphone; people suddenly disclosing confidential information or horrific stories of victimization to the police while being recorded, are not simple issues and there is currently a void of case law on these matters.

Data storage and retention challenges loom large. When there is no known incident or public complaint to warrant the seizure of the BWC data immediately, how long should police departments store the data? Police can receive historical complaints of assault by officers months and years after the fact. As technology changes at an increasingly rapid rate, information recorded on a device today may not be playable on the technology of tomorrow, much like the VHS tape versus compact-disc dilemma of yesteryear.

Technology is fallible, especially in varying weather conditions. BWCs require batteries which are expensive and occasionally fail. BWCs are worn on the officers’ body — somewhere on the uniform, headgear or glasses. The public may not accept that a camera was knocked off in a scuffle of foot chase and therefore didn’t record a critical event, which will occur on occasion. Equipment is often dislodged, altered, damaged or otherwise impacted during routine duties.

But my biggest concern is that the lens on a BWC faces forward, in a set position. It does not follow the eyes of the officer, but follows the direction of their body, depending on where it is mounted. The camera will not always capture the image that the officer saw while her head is turned in a different direction than the body — when that view may well be what formed the grounds for the officer to fear bodily harm. That could be misleading when viewed in the aftermath of an incident.

There is no doubt that BWCs will increase in popularity among North American police services in the coming months. Recordings of incidents will undoubtedly vilify the odd police officer and exonerate hundreds of others.

But in the meantime, the public needs to enter this burgeoning era with their eyes wide-open to the fact that if a police service can afford to acquire and maintain BWCs, and if an officer isn’t violating someone’s right to privacy and has it turned when an incident occurs, and if the technology functions at the best angle to capture the event, the BWC will be an excellent tool. At many other times, it will be another valuable option in the police officers’ tool chest, but will not always be the end all, be all.

1. Mayor says it was “a bad decision.” No, really?

(AP Photo/Courtesy of L. Chris StewartIn this April 4, 2015, frame from video provided by Attorney L. Chris Stewart representing the family of Walter Lamer Scott, Scott appears to be running away from City Patrolman Michael Thomas Slager, right, in North Charleston, S.C. Slager was charged with murder Tuesday, hours after law enforcement officials viewed the dramatic video that appears to show Slager shooting a fleeing Scott several times in the back.

The cop who (allegedly) shot a 50-year-old black man several times while he was running away is evidently so stupid he not only shot a man dead over a traffic stop, but didn’t notice the witness recording it all a few yards away. North Charleston must be pretty hard up for cops. Do they buy them wholesale at Costco?

2. In Persian years, 13 is nothing

AP Photo/Ebrahim NorooziIranian President Hassan Rouhani: Is 13 years so long to wait for a bomb?

Obama admits that, yeah, under his deal, Iran could build a bomb in 13 years, no problem. But he still can’t figure out what the objection is. Is that supposed to make us feel secure? “Hey, they were gonna build it anyway, what could we do?” It doesn’t say much about Obama’s view of America’s ability to contain rogue powers. It’s like one of those mortgages where you only pay a bit in the early years, because you’re building up to monster payments later on. It feels good for a while, but then you get crushed. Is 13 years Obama’s idea of “long term”? That could be just two presidents from now.

3. One triple bogey and they want to quit playing

China has apparently had it up to here with golf. After hiring big-name golfers and paying them millions of dollars to build hundreds of courses in celebration of its new prosperity, Bloomberg reports that the Chinese government has gone to war against golf courses. Evidently it didn’t occur to anyone in the Peoples Congress that 7,000-yard courses stuffed with vegetation and cart paths tend to eat up a lot of landscape. And besides, two-thirds were allegedly built in violation of a 2004 national moratorium. On Wednesday the Ministry of Land and Resources shut down 66 courses, including three in Beijing.

4. And the president would live at Motel 6

AP Photo/Charles DharapakSen. Rand Paul would get rid of the chairs, the curtains and the tile on the floor. The cop could stay, but he'd have to be paid by the private sector.

Rand Paul wants to be president so he can do as little as possible. The libertarian Republican launched his campaign yesterday. Under President Paul, the U.S. government would be so small you’d need a microscope to find it. Here, courtesy of Vox, is some of the stuff he’s against: He doubts the constitutionality of progressive income taxes, would eliminate almost all federal education and housing programs, end the biggest anti-poverty tax credits, eliminate foreign aid, institute large defence cuts, slash the State Department budget by more than two-thirds, and cut the Food and Drug Administration budget to limit government “intrusion into the nation’s food supply.” The bureau of Indian affairs would be eliminated entirely. Previous administrations tried to do that to the Indians themselves, but never quite managed.

5. File it next to the fixed-date election law

CANADIAN PRESS/Nathan DenetteFinance Minister Joe Oliver

All that stuff about CSIS monitoring our every move? Well, clearly Joe Oliver isn’t listening in on National Post editorial board meetings. A secret source says Tories will introduce a balanced budget law. Gee, will it be the same one half the provinces in the country introduced a few years back, and have been happily ignoring ever since? Or will Oliver write up a brand-new version that the next government can treat like Mike Duffy treats ethics?

Oh yeah, and these:

– Can I be on the measuring committee?
France is banning super-skinny models, as part of a clampdown on anorexia. According to Reuters, models would have to present a medical certificate showing a body mass index of at least 18, about 55 kg (121 lb) for a height of 1.75 meters (5.7 feet), before being hired for a job and for a few weeks afterwards.

– Kansas bans ‘dismemberment abortion’
Except when necessary to save a woman’s life or prevent irreversible damage to her physical health, doctors will not be allowed to use forceps, clamps, scissors or similar instruments on a fetus to remove it from the womb in pieces. It’s the first state to do so. If you want your baby taken apart a piece at a time, you’ll have to find another state.

– Call it Panda porn

The newspapers of the world were squeamish about showing the cartoons of Muhammad that got Charlie Hebdo attacked, but we have no hesitation in running shots of two panda bears humping away, right? Hey, the bear went 18 minutes and 3 seconds! Woo-hoo. You go panda. Have we got our priorities straight or what?

– And it owns a cottage in PEI

CTV reports that a nasty stomach bug that sickens thousands of people in Canada each year is growing resistant to most of the medicines used to kill it and could begin to pose serious threats in this country, says a Canadian microbiologist. Let’s call it the “Duffy’ strain. It lives at home but travels freely.

– He also backs balanced-budget laws. Just not now.

Jim Prentice says he stands by fixed-date elections. He just called this one early because, uh, it was necessary. Like, that doesn’t mean he would always do that. Just, like, if he needed to. Any other questions?

TYRONE, Mo. — A gunman went house to house, fatally shooting seven people and wounding one overnight in a small southern Missouri town before apparently committing suicide in a vehicle, authorities said Friday.

The victims were found in four different homes in the unincorporated town of Tyrone about 65 kilometres north of the Arkansas border. The body of the 36-year-old suspect was discovered in a neighbouring county, dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound, Missouri State Highway Patrol Sgt. Jeff Kinder said.

Kinder did not release any information about a possible motive for the shootings or whether the gunman and the victims were connected. He said the victims’ names won’t be released until all relatives are notified.

The Texas County Sheriff’s office received a call about 10:15 p.m. Thursday from a young woman who said she had fled to a neighbour’s home after hearing gunshots in her house, Kinder said. When officers arrived, they found two people dead in that home.

Officers later found five more people who were fatally shot and one injured person in three additional homes. The injured person was taken to a hospital.

The body of an older woman was found in another home, but appeared to have died of natural causes, Kinder said, adding, “We’re not calling her a victim at this time.”

Texas County coroner Tom Whittaker said investigators were still working at the scenes Friday morning.

AP Photo/Houston Herald, Doug DavisonAuthorities respond to a house in Tyrone early Friday.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/missouri-shootings-leave-nine-dead-a-four-scenes-report/feed0]]>stdPolice tape surrounds one of the crime scenes in Tyrone, Mo., Friday. Authorities say multiple people were shot to death and one was wounded in attacks in the small southeastern Missouri town, and the suspected gunman was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound.0228_Shooting_in_Missouri_310_ABAP Photo/Houston Herald, Doug DavisonWhite supporters stay in background during Ottawa vigil for Michael Brownhttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/white-supporters-stay-in-background-during-ottawa-vigil-for-michael-brown
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/white-supporters-stay-in-background-during-ottawa-vigil-for-michael-brown#commentsWed, 26 Nov 2014 15:15:49 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=547973

If Ottawa police feared that Tuesday night’s vigil for Michael Brown — the unarmed 18-year-old black man shot and killed last August by police in Ferguson, Missouri — might turn violent, their fears were groundless.

The vigil, which attracted about 200 people despite near-zero temperatures, was peaceful, orderly and, most of the time, almost eerily silent.

There were no angry chants or raised fists; just the muffled sound of mittened hands intermittently applauding a succession of speakers, a drummer, and an impromptu a cappella singer.

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The vigil was in response to Monday’s decision by a U.S. grand jury not to indict the police officer who shot and killed Brown. That sparked rioting in the streets of Ferguson, with at least a dozen buildings badly damaged or destroyed.

In Ottawa, the crowd gathered at 6 p.m. at a small plaza at the corner of Sussex Drive and York Street, close to the U.S. Embassy. Police blocked off Sussex and part of York, but were otherwise virtually invisible.

Earlier, on Facebook, organizers had asked white and non-black supporters to remain in the background and avoid speaking to the media during the vigil.

“Remember that you are there in support of black folks, so should never be at the centre of anything,” wrote organizer Bilan Arte, deputy chair of the Canadian Federation of Students.

Arte asked white and non-black sympathizers to “stand behind black folks, or between us and the police. If you see a cop harassing a black person, come in and engage. (Chances are they are least likely to arrest you.)”

Her post triggered a fierce debate on Facebook. One white supporter said it had “changed a lot for me. I will no longer be attending this event or supporting this cause.” A non-white poster asked: “Wow, is this an anti-racist rally or a pro-segregation one?”

But if some were offended, those who showed up at the vigil seemed unfazed. The predominantly white crowd uncomplainingly ceded the bullhorn to black and aboriginal speakers.

“What happened in Ferguson is not an isolated incident,” Arte told those at the vigil, some holding candles or signs reading “Black lives matter” or “No justice, no peace.”

“For many of us, this is so real,” she said. “This is not something that is far from us.”

Two other organizers read an open letter titled “We’re living an American horror story”, written by Ferguson residents. Another recited a lengthy list of black victims of police violence, dating back more than a century.

David McNew/Getty ImagesCalifornia Highway Patrol officers break up a blockage and chase protesters on the 101 freeway following. It was one of many protests across the continent Tuesday after the decision in Ferguson not to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown.

Then came four and a half minutes of silence, symbolizing the four and a half hours that Brown’s body was left in the street after he was shot, followed by a series of speakers — some eloquent, some angry — who appeared to emerge, unscripted, from the crowd.

One, who identified herself as Doreen, talked about Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old Cleveland boy shot dead by police Sunday after brandishing what turned out to be a replica gun.

AP Photo/David GoldmanMissouri National Guard stand watch early Wednesday at the scene in Ferguson where a beauty salon was burned to the ground in the riots Monday.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/canada/white-supporters-stay-in-background-during-ottawa-vigil-for-michael-brown/feed0stdCalifornia Highway Patrol officers break up a blockage and chase protesters on the 101 freeway following. It was one of many protests across the continent Tuesday after the decision in Ferguson not to indict Darren Wilson for killing Michael Brown.David McNew/Getty ImagesAP Photo/Charlie RiedelAP Photo/David GoldmanKelly McParland: The Ferguson shooting will have the usual result; more guns, not fewerhttp://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/kelly-mcparland-the-ferguson-shooting-will-have-the-usual-result-more-guns-not-less
http://news.nationalpost.com/full-comment/kelly-mcparland-the-ferguson-shooting-will-have-the-usual-result-more-guns-not-less#commentsMon, 25 Aug 2014 13:59:29 +0000http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/?p=161611

According to the New York Times, the White House is having “second thoughts” about the policy of arming U.S. police to the teeth. The images from Ferguson, Missouri – of police kitted out like paratroopers with sniper rifles and armoured cars – is causing consternation in Congress. President Barack Obama has ordered a “comprehensive review.”

It would be shocking if anything came of the review. It may indeed find that U.S. police are now treated more as paramilitary units than a force built for handing out speeding tickets and investigating burglaries. But if practical experience is any guide, the response will be tepid. It’s just not in the DNA of the country or of the law enforcement community.

Americans as a nation still see weaponry as a solution rather than a problem. Every time there is some mass killing, weapon sales increase. When school children are murdered by a crazed gunman, millions of Americans – illogically – figure if more people had guns, the danger would be less. Oceans of ink and airtime have been dedicated to disputing this conclusion, but —time and again — it runs up against a solid wall of resistance. Americans will not give up their guns, and if ordinary citizens feel so emotionally tied to their weaponry, you can imagine how much greater that mindset is among police.

The idea that U.S. police weren’t adequately armed grew legs after 9/11. In the national furor that followed the terrorist attacks on New York, a consensus was reached to protect the “homeland”, no matter how extravagant the cost. It was understandable at the time – there had never been anything like the 9/11 attacks on U.S. soil and the country was understandably set on ensuring there was never a sequel.

On that basis, billions of dollars were set aside to allow police to beef up their manpower, weaponry and equipment. In addition, the Pentagon stepped up the transfer of military supplies and gear to police across the country.

But something went awry in the thinking. Somewhere along the line, Washington forgot that the terrorists, by and large, lived somewhere else. Osama bin Laden hatched his plan from a remote camp in Afghanistan, and was eventually gunned down in Pakistan. U.S. drone attacks have focused on places like Yemen and the wild, lawless areas of northern Pakistan. ISIS, the more brutal rival to al Qaeda, operates from Iraq and Syria.

On those occasions when domestic U.S. violence has had potential links to Islamist or terrorist motivations — the 2009 Fort Hood shootings or the Boston Marathon bombings – the guilty were either immediately evident, or were tracked down through traditional police methods. Nothing in the police arsenals made any difference at Sandy Hook, Virginia Tech, Columbine, the “Dark Knight” shootings or any of the other various massacres that have continue to shock Americans despite their frequency.

ADRIAN LAM/Postmedia NewsMeaghan Walker, a member of Cowichan Tribes, has started a cleaning business and has been told not to put up posters on hydro poles and other locations downtown. Victoria is built on unceded aboriginal territory and First Nations should have the right to put up advertising posters without city interference, Walker says.

Nonetheless, the weapons have poured in. According to the Times, the police arsenal includes tens of thousands of machine guns, hundreds of thousands of ammunition magazines, silencers, body armour, camouflage, night-vision equipment, armoured cars, aircraft, and the training to use it. The booty can’t be blamed on partisan politial leanings – vice-president Joe Biden is reportedly a big fan of one particular grant program that lets police buy “weapons, armor and other equipment.” It takes a truly unconventional thinker – like the libertarian senator Rand Paul, who thinks Hillary Clinton is a “war hawk” — to suggest the country should “demilitarize” the police.

It won’t happen. As has been demonstrated any number of times, police are particularly immune to any reform that involves less manpower, fewer guns or less weaponry. No politician – whether local, state or federal – wants to be caught suggesting police should get by with less. Senior police officials, and police unions, are highly skilled at implying that even one less bullet could leave them hampered in their ability to ensure the safety and security of the community.

The images from Ferguson are the natural result of that. Cops in body armour and riot gear, aiming sniper rifles or other heavy weaponry directly at citizens in T-shirts and jeans, is what you get when you build a national paramilitary force that has been taught to treat fellow Americans like the Taliban, or that sees any mass gathering of people as a “threat” that may need to be confronted with lethal force.

Fortunately, authorities in Ferguson haven’t killed anyone since the original shooting, of Michael Brown, which set off the confrontation. The anger that would be unleashed if they had doesn’t bear contemplating. But the result would probably be the same: more weapons, not less. That’s just the way the U.S. does business.

FERGUSON, Mo. – A mostly sedate protest against the police shooting of a St. Louis-area teenager descended into hazy chaos late Monday night, as police fired several rounds of tear gas and chased down die-hard protesters, saying later that some officers had come under “heavy gunfire” and two civilian men had been shot.

A generally orderly, if emotional, rally over the death of Michael Brown turned into a tense standoff around 11 p.m. after police dramatically arrested two demonstrators, and a phalanx of riot officers took position at one end of a blocked-off section of road.

The officers, backed up by three or four armored vehicles, advanced and retreated toward a cluster of protesters who had congregated in the middle of the street.

Several rally organizers, meanwhile, tried to restore order to the gathering, which they said was being undermined by a few “provocateurs” determined to make trouble and force a police reaction.

Then shots of some kind could be heard at the other end of the street, at least some of them from tear-gas canisters fired by police. Wafts of acrid gas spread over the area as protesters and members of the large media contingent coughed and covered their eyes. A fire erupted in a restaurant near the confrontation, which protesters blamed on an errant tear-gas canister.

The line of police, most with guns drawn and aimed toward the remaining demonstrators, then moved forward en masse. After the streets were mostly cleared, authorities ordered reporters to leave, saying someone had been shot and there was a “public safety” issue.

“There is a dangerous dynamic in the night that allows a small number of violent agitators in the crowed to attempt to create chaos,” Capt. Ron Johnson of the Missouri Highway Patrol, in charge of the police operation, said later. “I stood there and listened over the radio to the screams of those officers who were under gunfire. I went back to our SWAT vehicle and saw a gentleman in the back who had been shot. I saw a car pull up and drop off a gentleman who was shot … We can’t have this.”

Two fires were lit, 31 people arrested and two pistols seized from men pulled from a car just across the street from a police-designated media marshaling area, said an emotional Capt. Johnson, who urged journalists not to “glamourize” violent demonstrators.

AP Photo/Charlie RiedelPolice advance to clear people Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, during a protest for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo.

Capt. Johnson said bottles and Molotov cocktails were also thrown from the crowd. He did not have condition updates on those who were shot. Johnson said four officers were injured by rocks or bottles.

Demonstrators no longer faced the neighbourhood’s midnight-to-5 a.m. curfew, but police told protesters they couldn’t assemble in a single spot and had to keep moving. Officers trying to enforce tighter restrictions used bullhorns to order protesters to disperse. Police deployed noisemakers, and fired tear gas and flash grenades.

Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPolice attempt to control demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

After the streets were mostly cleared, authorities ordered reporters to leave. At least three journalists were detained before being released.

A photographer for the Getty photo agency was arrested while covering the demonstrations and later released. Two German reporters were arrested and detained for three hours. Conservative German daily Die Welt said correspondent Ansgar Graw and reporter Frank Herrmann, who writes for German regional papers, were arrested after allegedly failing to follow police instructions to vacate an empty street. They said they followed police orders.

Johnson said members of the media had to be asked repeatedly to return to the sidewalks and that it was a matter of safety. He said in some cases it was not immediately clear who was a reporter but that once it was established, police acted properly.

Citing “a dangerous dynamic in the night,” Johnson also urged protesters with peaceful intent to demonstrate during the daytime hours.

It had been much different earlier. Clutching red roses, singing hymns and chanting quietly, hundreds of residents of Ferguson took to the streets again, after autopsy results indicated the 18 year old was shot six times, and National Guardsman stood at the ready in case the rally turned violent.

The tone late in the evening was more somber than unruly as demonstrators of all ages, including several clergyman, marched under the watchful eye of dozens of police officers.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesDemonstrators hold up roses while protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown make their voices heard on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri. Protesters have been vocal asking for justice in the shooting death of Michael Brown by a Ferguson police officer on Aug. 9, 2014.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesRapper Nelly joins demonstrators protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown as they make their voices heard on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Police closed off several blocks of the Ferguson street where most of the last few days’ unrest has unfolded, but many converged there all the same. After calling in the National Guard, state governor Jay Nixon lifted a curfew for the area.

Officers initially did not wear the military-style garb that had angered many protesters earlier, but many of the predominantly white contingent had truncheons, gas masks and plastic handcuffs slung from their belts.

The Guardsman were nowhere to be seen, but a helicopter hovered overhead, it’s powerful spotlight sweeping the area.

Elliott Wilson, who grew up in Ferguson and held a sign saying ‘hand’s up, don’t shoot,” said he came because he often experienced police harassment as a youth, and is worried what some day officers might do to his son, four-year-old Michael.

“If I get a call saying something happened to him, what am I going to do?” said the 23 year old, now a teacher in Bellofount, Mo. “It hurts that I could get a call that my baby boy has died (at the hands of the police).”

Mr. Wilson said he doesn’t condone the more violent episodes of some recent nights, but believes they served a purpose.

“If it didn’t happen, no one would pay attention to it.”

Members of local clergy, including a great uncle of Michael Brown, said they came to show their support for the cause, but also to try to help keep the peace.

“This is the symptom of a greater disease and that disease is unemployment, it’s the separation of races … It’s economic isolation,” said Rev. Charles Ewing, Mr. Brown’s relative. “And all those things need to be addressed if we’re going to have a just society that’s going to ensure these kinds of things don’t happen again.”

The pastors had trouble competing with another visitor to the site: rap star Nelly. A large crowd followed him and the media that surrounded him as police shunted them off the street.

An independent autopsy performed on Mr. Brown, 18, found he was shot at least six times, including twice in the head, pathologists and attorneys hired by the family said earlier in the day.

The pathologists said Mr. Brown was hit in his right arm either when he put his hands up or when his back was turned to the shooter, but that they were unable to tell which.

Another autopsy conducted by St. Louis County found he was shot six to eight times, including in the head and chest.

In Washington, President Barack Obama said he was sending Attorney General Eric Holder to Ferguson to meet U.S. law enforcement authorities investigating the shooting. The president added most of the protesters were peaceful, but a small minority of looters was undermining justice for Mr. Brown.

During a brief pause in his summer vacation, Mr. Obama expressed sympathy for the “passions and anger” sparked by the young man’s death, but said giving in to that anger through looting and attacks on police would only stir tensions and lead to further chaos.

Overcoming the mistrust endemic between many communities and their local police would require people to “listen and not just shout,” he said.

“That’s how we’re going to move forward together, by trying to unite each other and understand each other and not simply divide ourselves from one another.”

Mr. Holder will meet officials from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. Justice Department who are independently investigating the death.

The president said he also had told Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon the use of the National Guard to help calm tensions in the St. Louis suburb must be limited, and he would be monitoring the operation to see whether the guard’s involvement was helping or hurting.

The Aug. 9 shooting has touched off rancorous protests in Ferguson, where police have used riot gear and tear gas. Mr. Nixon ordered the National Guard in to restore order Monday, while lifting a midnight-5 a.m. curfew that had been in place for two days.

Mr. Brown’s death has heightened racial tensions between the predominantly black community and the mostly white police department.

Civil rights activists have compared the shooting to other racially charged cases, especially the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin, the unarmed black teenager shot by a Florida neighbourhood watch organizer.

Police have revealed little about the encounter between Mr. Brown and Darren Wilson, except to say there was a scuffle in which the officer was injured and Mr. Brown was shot. Witnesses say the teenager had his hands in the air as the officer fired multiple rounds.

Forensic pathologist Dr. Shawn Parcells, who assisted former New York chief medical examiner Dr. Michael Baden during the independent autopsy, said a graze wound on Mr. Brown’s right arm could have occurred in several ways: He may have had his back to the shooter, or he could have been facing the shooter with his hands above his head or in a defensive position in front of his face.

“But we don’t know,” Dr. Parcells said.

Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty ImagesDemonstrators take part in a protest in Ferguson, Missouri on August 18, 2014.

Dr. Baden said one of the bullets entered the top of Mr. Brown’s skull, suggesting his head was bent forward when he suffered the fatal injury. The pathologists said the teen, who also was shot four times in the right arm, could have survived the other bullet wounds.

Dr. Baden said there was no gun-powder residue on the body, indicating he was not shot at close range. However, he added he did not have access to the man’s clothing, which might show residue.

A grand jury could begin hearing evidence Wednesday to determine whether Mr. Wilson, should be charged in the death.

AP Photo/Charlie RiedelMembers of the Missouri National Guard stand watch outside a command post near a protest Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesPolice officers work to keep order as demonstrators express their feelings on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPolice attempt to control demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPolice attempt to control demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown on August 18, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

AP Photo/Jeff RobersonPolice take up positions after reportedly being shot at Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, in Ferguson, Mo.

AP Photo/Charlie RiedelDuane Merrells walks past a burned out gas station with an upside down flag during a protest Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, for Michael Brown, who was killed by police Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo.

AP Photo/Charlie RiedelPeople march during a protest Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer Aug. 9 in Ferguson, Mo. Brown's shooting has sparked more than a week of protests, riots and looting in the St. Louis suburb.

Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty ImagesMissouri National Guard personnel position themselves prior to offering location support for law enforcement at the Missouri Highway Patrol command centre at the Plaza Boulevard Shopping Center in Ferguson, Missouri on August 18, 2014.

Michael B. Thomas/AFP/Getty ImagesMissouri National Guard snipers position themselves atop a plaza grocery store prior to offering location support for law enforcement at the Missouri Highway Patrol command center at the Plaza Boulevard Shopping Center in Ferguson, Missouri on August 18, 2014.

Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesProtesters hold a rally in solidarity with the people in Ferguson, Missouri protesting the death of Michael Brown and the excessive use of force by police on August 18, 2014 in New York City.

AP Photo/David GoldmanA waitress holds up her hands while watching from a restaurant balcony as protestors march in response to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, Monday, Aug. 18, 2014, in Atlanta.

Andrew Burton/Getty ImagesProtesters hold a rally in solidarity with the people of Ferguson, Missouri protesting the death of Michael Brown, and the excessive use of force by police on August 18, 2014 in New York City.

Calling for a sharp separation between the nation’s armed forces and local police, President Barack Obama on Monday urged a re-examination of programs that have equipped civilian law enforcement departments with military gear from the Pentagon.

The transfers have come under public scrutiny after the forceful police response to racially charged unrest in Ferguson, Missouri.

Amid video images of well-armed police confronting protesters with combat weapons and other surplus military equipment, Obama said it would be useful to review how local law enforcement agencies have used federal grants that permit them to obtain heavier armaments.

“There is a big difference between our military and our local law enforcement, and we don’t want those lines blurred,” Obama told reporters at the White House. “That would be contrary to our traditions.”

Obama’s remarks came as he called for understanding in the face of racially charged anger in Ferguson in the wake of a police shooting of an unarmed 18-year-old man.

AP Photo/Susan WalshPresident Barack Obama speaks in the James Brady Press Briefing Room in the White House in Washington, Monday, Aug. 18, 2014. Taking a two-day break from summer vacation, Obama met with top advisers at the White House to review developments in Iraq and in racially charged Ferguson, Mo., two trouble spots where Obama has ordered his administration to intervene.

Obama said the vast majority of protesters in a St. Louis suburb were peaceful, but said that a small minority was undermining justice for the unarmed black man shot and killed by police.

The initial police reaction to the protests drew attention to the militarization of local police departments, with critics arguing that the heavily-armed police presence only fuelled the tensions.

A report by the American Civil Liberties Union in June said police agencies had become “excessively militarized,” with officers using training and equipment designed for the battlefield on city streets. Attorney General Eric Holder and several lawmakers have suggested that the practice of supplying police with such military surplus be reconsidered.

Obama said he also spoke to Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon about Nixon’s deployment of National Guard units to help secure Ferguson. Obama said he urged that the guard be used in a “limited and appropriate way.”

AP Photo/Charlie RiedelPolice wait to advance after tear gas was used to disperse a crowd Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, druing a protest for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer last Saturday in Ferguson, Mo.

“I’ll be watching over the next several days, to assess whether, in fact, it’s helping rather than hindering progress in Ferguson,” he said.

Pausing briefly in the middle of his summer vacation, Obama expressed sympathy for the “passions and anger” sparked by the death of 18-year-old Michael Brown. But he said giving in to that anger through looting and attacks on police only stirs tensions and leads to further chaos. He said overcoming the mistrust endemic between many communities and their local police would require Americans to “listen and not just shout.”

“That’s how we’re going to move forward together, by trying to unite each other and understand each other and not simply divide ourselves from one another,” Obama told reporters at the White House.

Obama said Holder would travel to Ferguson this week to meet with FBI and other officials carrying out an independent federal investigation into Brown’s death.

Appearing in the White House briefing room in a dress shirt but no tie, Obama also spoke for the first time to the racial tensions and grievances perceived by African-Americans in Ferguson. In previous comments about the situation, Obama had avoided talking directly about race, wary of rushing to judgment or further inflaming the situation.

Weighing his words carefully, Obama said it was clear that disparities in how blacks and whites are treated and sentenced must be addressed, calling for more safeguards and training to prevent missteps. At the same time, he acknowledged the difficult situation that police officers sometimes face.

“There are young black men that commit crime. We can argue about why that happened – because the poverty they were born into or the school systems that failed them or what have you- but if they commit a crime, then they need to be prosecuted,” Obama said. “Because every community has an interest in public safety.”

Brown was unarmed when he was fatally shot by a police officer on Aug. 9 in Ferguson, a predominantly black community that long has been at odds with the mostly white police department. Results of an independent autopsy released Monday by Brown’s family determined that Brown was shot at least six times, including twice in the head.

Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPolice advance on demonstrators protesting the killing of teenager Michael Brown on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Obama’s remarks on the crisis were the first since the situation in Ferguson escalated over the weekend, with Nixon, the Missouri governor, ordering a midnight curfew for Ferguson and ordering the National Guard to help restore order. Nixon lifted that curfew on Monday, but tensions remained high the morning after police once again deployed tear gas in response to what they said were reports of gunfire, looting and vandalism by protesters.

Shortly before speaking to reporters Monday, Obama received an update from top advisers including Holder and White House Counsel Neil Eggleston. Obama has asked the Justice Department and the FBI to investigate Brown’s death, and Holder over the weekend ordered a federal medical examiner to perform a third autopsy on Brown.

Obama weighed in on the crisis during a brief break in his annual summer vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, where the president was spending two weeks with his family while juggling multiple crises in the U.S. and overseas. Obama returned to the White House late Monday and planned to return to the Massachusetts island on Tuesday. His brief return to Washington had been announced by the White House before the standoff in Ferguson began.

AP Photo/Charlie RiedelPolice wait to advance after tear gas was used to disperse a crowd Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, during a protest for Michael Brown, who was killed by a police officer last Saturday in Ferguson, Mo. As night fell Sunday in Ferguson, another peaceful protest quickly deteriorated after marchers pushed toward one end of a street. Police attempted to push them back by firing tear gas and shouting over a bullhorn that the protest was no longer peaceful.

“The whole world is watching” means something very different today than it did 46 years ago when anti-war protesters outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago jeered law enforcement officers while thousands of Americans watched from home on their television sets. It means that even if TV news stations are airing reports on the weather and Barack Obama’s golf vacation — as many did Sunday night — people around the world can watch live, unfiltered footage of Ferguson, Missouri, descending into chaos.

One officer on the ground clearly forgot that last evening, as I, along with 40,000 other people, watched a live stream in Ferguson being recorded by a reporter with KARG Argus Radio in St. Louis. Though the audio is somewhat muffled, viewers could hear one unidentified officer yell at the reporter, saying, “Get the f- -k out of here and get that [camera] light off, or you’re getting shot with this.” The news doesn’t work the way it did back in 1968; more than 40,000 people heard the officer’s threat as he delivered it live — there’s no taking that back.

They mayhem in Ferguson Sunday night came after more than a week of protests following the police shooting death of unarmed black teenager Michael Brown on August 9. Since then, the St. Louis suburb of Ferguson has seen protests nearly every night, with incidences of violence and looting from protesters, and rubber bullets, tear gas, and smoke bombs from police. By Sunday evening, Ferguson was under its second night of curfew and being patrolled by military police. Now Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has called in the National Guard.

The palpable anger from Ferguson residents and onlookers alike is being fuelled by this uncensored, constant coverage, and in most cases, rightfully so. A story that was initially primarily about the shooting death of an unarmed teen has become just as much about civil liberties, the militarization of police, the use of force and political obfuscation.

One anecdote — from Washington Post reporter Wesley Lowery — captured the confusion of the scene as he live-tweeted his arrest of August 13. Sitting in a Ferguson McDonald’s to charge his iPhone that day, Lowery described being confronted by SWAT officers demanding identification and ordering him to stop recording. Following conflicting information from officers, Lowery soon found himself in cuffs and in a holding cell at the police station. Then, without explanation, he was allowed to leave. It might have had something to do with the tweets of his experience being shared thousands of times over.

Futile attempts to control the information flow by police has just galvanized protesters further. Initially, police were reluctant to release the name of the officer who fatally shot Brown, ostensibly for investigatory (and perhaps security) reasons. When they did release the name — 28-year-old Darren Wilson — they paired it with footage of Michael Brown allegedly stealing cigars from a local convenience store, while at the same time conceding the alleged theft had nothing to do with the shooting. It came off as a hackneyed, deliberate attempt to disparage Brown’s character, and it backfired.

Ferguson proves there is no monopoly on information. While the St. Louis County medical examiner keeps a tight lid on her investigation, the preliminary results of an independent autopsy have already been released and suggest that Brown was shot a minimum of six times, including twice in the head. The lack of powder marks on his clothes suggests he was some distance from Wilson when the shots were fired. Those results corroborate witness accounts that Brown was surrendering when he was shot. There will be two more autopsies to try to determine what happened, including one ordered by Washington.

The danger of this flood of information is that the truth is often buried under, or distorted by, thousands of pictures, eyewitness accounts and videos on the ground. For many armchair observers, that will mean a rush to judgment. But Ferguson is a good reminder that when the whole world watches now, it is looking through a seemingly infinite number of lenses. The authorities in Ferguson don’t seem to understand that. But if there’s something positive to come out of this disaster, it’s that, eventually, they will have to.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder on Sunday ordered a federal medical examiner to perform another autopsy on the body of a black Missouri teenager whose fatal shooting by a white police officer has spurred a week of rancourous and sometimes violent protests in suburban St. Louis.

Department of Justice spokesman Brian Fallon cited a request by family members and the “extraordinary circumstances” surrounding the case of 18-year-old Michael Brown in explaining decision.

“This independent examination will take place as soon as possible,” Fallon said in a statement. “Even after it is complete, Justice Department officials still plan to take the state-performed autopsy into account in the course of their investigation.”

The Justice Department already had deepened its civil rights investigation of the shooting. Officials said a day earlier that 40 FBI agents were going door-to-door gathering information in the Ferguson, Missouri, neighbourhood where an unarmed Brown was shot to death in the middle of the street on Aug. 9.

David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who supervised the criminal civil rights section of Miami’s U.S. Attorney’s office, said a federally conducted autopsy “more closely focused on entry point of projectiles, defensive wounds and bruises” might help that investigation, and that the move is “not that unusual.”

He also said federal authorities want to calm any public fears that no action will be taken on the case.

Holder’s latest announcement followed the first night of a state-imposed curfew in Ferguson, which ended with tear gas and seven arrests after police dressed in riot gear used armoured vehicles to disperse defiant protesters.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said protesters weren’t the reason for the escalated police reaction early Sunday morning after the midnight curfew took effect, but a report of people who had broken into a barbecue restaurant and taken to the roof, and a man who flashed a handgun in the street as armoured vehicles approached the crowd of protesters.

Also overnight, a man was shot and critically wounded in the same area, but not by police; authorities were searching for the shooter. Someone also shot at a police car, officials said.

The protests have been going on since Brown’s death heightened racial tensions between the predominantly black community and mostly white Ferguson Police Department, leading to several run-ins between police and protesters and prompting Missouri’s governor to put the Highway Patrol in charge of security.

Joshua LOTT/AFP/Getty ImagesMasked demonstrators protest against the August 9 police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by holding up signs on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri late on August 16, 2014.

Ferguson Police waited six days to publicly reveal the name of the officer and documents alleging Brown robbed a convenience store before he was killed, though Chief Thomas Jackson said the officer did not know Brown was a suspect when he encountered him walking in the street with a friend.

Gov. Jay Nixon, who imposed the curfew after declaring a state of emergency as protests turned violent to start the weekend, said Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week” that he was not aware the police were going to release surveillance video from the store where Brown is alleged to have stolen a $49 box of cigars.

“It’s appeared to cast aspersions on a young man that was gunned down in the street. It made emotions raw,” Nixon said.

In announcing the curfew, Nixon said many protesters were making themselves heard peacefully but the state would not allow looters to endanger the community. Johnson, the Highway Patrol captain, had said police would not enforce the curfew with armoured trucks and tear gas and would communicate with protesters and give them ample opportunity to leave. Local officers faced strong criticism earlier in the week for their use of tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters.

As the curfew deadline arrived early Sunday, most protesters left the streets, but those who remained protesters refused to leave the area as officers spoke through a loudspeaker: “You are in violation of a state-imposed curfew. You must disperse immediately.”

As officers put on gas masks, a chant from the distant crowd emerged: “We have the right to assemble peacefully.”

A moment later, police began firing canisters into the crowd. Highway Patrol Spokesman Lt. John Hotz initially said police only used smoke, but later told The Associated Press they also used tear gas canisters.

Jackson, the Ferguson police chief, has identified the officer who shot Brown as Darren Wilson, a six-year police veteran who had no previous complaints against him. Wilson has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting and the department has refused to say anything about his whereabouts. Associated Press reporters have been unable to contact him at any addresses or phone numbers listed under that name in the St. Louis area.

Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPolice fire tear gas at demonstrators protesting the shooting of Michael Brown after they refused to honour the midnight curfew on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesDemonstrators protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown raise their arms with some chanting, ' Hands up, Don't Shoot', on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

The first night of a state-imposed curfew in Ferguson, Missouri, ended with tear gas and seven arrests, after police dressed in riot gear used armoured vehicles to disperse defiant protesters who refused to leave a St. Louis suburb where a black, unarmed teen had been shot by a white police officer a week earlier.

Missouri State Highway Patrol Capt. Ron Johnson said protesters weren’t the reason for the escalated police reaction early Sunday morning after the midnight curfew took effect, but a report of people who had broken into a barbecue restaurant and a man who flashed a handgun in the street as armoured vehicles approached the crowd of protesters.

Also overnight, a man was shot and critically wounded in the same area, but not by police; authorities were searching for the shooter. Someone also shot at a police car, officials said.

The protests have been going on since 18-year-old Michael Brown was shot and killed Aug. 9 by a white Ferguson officer, Darren Wilson. The death heightened racial tensions between the predominantly black community and mostly white Ferguson Police Department, leading to several run-ins between police and protesters and prompting Missouri’s governor to put the Highway Patrol in charge of security.

The Ferguson Police Department waited six days to publicly reveal the name of the officer and documents alleging Brown robbed a convenience store before he was killed, though Ferguson Police Chief Thomas Jackson said Wilson did not know Brown was a suspect when he encountered him walking in the street with a friend.

Gov. Jay Nixon, who declared a state of emergency in Ferguson on Saturday after protests turned violent the night before, said Sunday morning on ABC’s “This Week” that he was not aware the police were going to release the surveillance video.

“It’s appeared to cast aspersions on a young man that was gunned down in the street. It made emotions raw,” he said.

In announcing the curfew, Nixon said that though many protesters were making themselves heard peacefully, the state would not allow looters to endanger the community.

Joshua LOTT/AFP/Getty ImagesDemonstrators protesting the August 9 police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown react as police fire tear gas on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri early on August 17, 2014.

“We must first have and maintain peace. This is a test. The eyes of the world are watching,” Nixon said during a news conference that was interrupted repeatedly by people objecting to the curfew and demanding Wilson be charged with murder.

Meanwhile, Nixon said the U.S. Department of Justice is beefing up its civil rights investigation of the shooting. Johnson said 40 FBI agents were going door-to-door in the neighbourhood gathering information about the shooting.

Johnson said earlier Saturday that police would not enforce the curfew with armoured trucks and tear gas but would communicate with protesters and give them ample opportunity to leave. Local officers faced strong criticism earlier in the week for their use of tear gas and rubber bullets against protesters.

But as the curfew deadline arrived early Sunday, remaining protesters refused to leave the area as officers spoke through a loudspeaker: “You are in violation of a state-imposed curfew. You must disperse immediately.”

As officers put on gas masks, a chant from the distant crowd emerged: “We have the right to assemble peacefully.”

A moment later, police began firing canisters into the crowd. Highway Patrol Spokesman Lt. John Hotz initially said police only used smoke, but later told The Associated Press they also used tear gas canisters.

“Obviously, we’re trying to give them every opportunity to comply with the curfew,” Hotz said.

Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPolice fire tear gas at demonstrators protesting the shooting of Michael Brown after they refused to honour the midnight curfew on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

On Saturday, some residents said it appeared the violent acts were being committed by people from other suburbs or states.

“Who would burn down their own backyard?” asked Rebecca McCloud, a local who works with the Sonshine Baptist Church in St. Louis. “These people aren’t from here. They came to burn down our city and leave.”

Wilson, the officer who shot Brown, is a six-year police veteran who had no previous complaints against him, Jackson has said. The Ferguson Police Department has refused to say anything about Wilson’s whereabouts, and Associated Press reporters were unable to contact him at any addresses or phone numbers listed under that name in the St. Louis area.

Wilson has been on paid administrative leave since the shooting. St. Louis County prosecutor Bob McCulloch said it could be weeks before the investigation wraps up.

Joshua LOTT/AFP/Getty ImagesMasked demonstrators protest against the August 9 police shooting of 18-year-old Michael Brown by holding up signs on the streets of Ferguson, Missouri late on August 16, 2014.

Scott Olson/Getty ImagesPeople wait for reaction from police after they refused to honour the midnight curfew on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesDemonstrators protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown raise their arms with some chanting, ' Hands up, Don't Shoot', on August 17, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

Joe Raedle/Getty ImagesDemonstrators protesting the shooting death of Michael Brown gather together in the street on Aug. 16, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri.

AP Photo/Charlie RiedelPeople defy a curfew Sunday, Aug. 17, 2014, before smoke and tear gas was fired to disperse a crowd protesting the shooting of teenager Michael Brown last Saturday in Ferguson, Mo.

ST. LOUIS — Within an hour, Georgia, then Missouri carried out the nation’s first executions since a botched lethal injection in Oklahoma in April raised new concerns about capital punishment.

Neither execution had any noticeable complications. Another execution, the third in a 24-hour span, is scheduled Wednesday evening in Florida.

Georgia inmate Marcus Wellons, 59, who was convicted of the 1989 rape and murder of a 15-year-old girl, received a single-drug injection late Tuesday night after the U.S. Supreme Court denied his late appeals.

His sentence was carried out about an hour before John Winfield, who was convicted of the 1996 killing two women, was executed early Wednesday in Bonne Terre, Missouri.

AP Photo/Atlanta Journal Constitution, Ben GrayEpiscopal Bishop Robert Wright, left, and the Rev. Joseph Shippen speak out against the death execution of Marcus Wellons outside Jackson State Diagnostic Prison where Tuesday night.

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Nine executions nationwide have been stayed or postponed since late April, when Oklahoma prison officials halted the execution of Clayton Lockett after noting that the lethal injection drugs weren’t being administered into his vein properly. Lockett’s punishment was halted and he died of a heart attack several minutes later.

“I think after Clayton Lockett’s execution, everyone is going to be watching very closely,” Fordham University School of Law professor Deborah Denno, a death penalty expert, said of this week’s executions.

Georgia, Missouri and Florida all refuse to say where they obtain their drugs, or if they are tested.

Lawyers for Wellons and Winfield had challenged the secretive process used by some states to obtain lethal injection drugs from unidentified, loosely regulated compounding pharmacies.

Georgia and Missouri both use the single drug pentobarbital, a sedative. Florida uses a three-drug combination of midazolam hydrochloride, vecuronium bromide and potassium chloride.

In the Georgia capital case, Wellons was lying still with eyes closed while the drugs were administered at a prison in Jackson. Minutes into the procedure, he took some heavy breaths and blew air out through his lips as if snoring. There was no visible movement minutes later.

It wasn’t immediately clear exactly when the drug began flowing, but typically it is within a minute or two after the warden leaves the room. The warden left the room at 11:32 p.m. Tuesday, 24 minutes before Wellons was pronounced dead at 11:56 p.m. EDT Tuesday.

I’d like to apologize to the Roberts family for my crimes and ask for forgiveness

In Missouri, Winfield was executed by lethal injection at 12:01 a.m. CDT and was pronounced dead at 12:10 a.m. CDT, a spokesman for the Missouri Department of Public Safety said. The U.S. Supreme Court had refused late Tuesday to halt his execution, and Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon denied clemency.

Winfield, 46, took four or five deep breaths as the drug was injected, puffed his cheeks twice and then fell silent, all in a matter of seconds.

Wellons was convicted in the 1989 rape and murder of India Roberts, his 15-year-old neighbour in suburban Atlanta.

Before the execution began, Wellons said he hoped his death could give Roberts’ family peace.

“I’d like to apologize to the Roberts family for my crimes and ask for forgiveness,” Wellons said.

In Missouri, Winfield had been dating Carmelita Donald on and off for several years and fathered two of her children. Donald began dating another man. One night in 1996, in a jealous rage, Winfield showed up outside Donald’s apartment in St. Louis County and confronted her, along with two friends of hers.

Winfield shot all three women in the head. Arthea Sanders and Shawnee Murphy died. Donald survived but was blinded.

Winfield declined to make a statement Wednesday.

I focus on making sure that we do things the right way here

Florida inmate John Ruthell Henry, who was convicted of killing his estranged wife and her son, is scheduled scheduled to be executed at 6 p.m. EDT Wednesday night at a prison in Starke, Florida.

The state said it would move ahead with carrying out the death sentence despite claims that Henry, 63, is mentally ill and intellectually disabled. The state claims anyone with an IQ of at least 70 is not mentally disabled; testing has shown Henry’s IQ at 78, though his lawyers say it should be re-evaluated.

Henry stabbed his estranged wife, Suzanne Henry, to death a few days before Christmas in 1985, according to court records. Hours later, he killed her five-year-old son from a previous relationship, the records show. Henry had previously pleaded no contest to second-degree murder for fatally stabbing his common-law wife, Patricia Roddy, in 1976, and was on parole when Suzanne Henry and the boy were killed.

Asked Tuesday if he had discussed with the Department of Corrections what happened in Oklahoma and if any changes were needed in Florida, Gov. Rick Scott said, “I focus on making sure that we do things the right way here.”

Florida and Missouri trail only Texas as the most active death penalty states. Texas has carried out seven executions this year. Florida has executed five men, and Missouri has executed five.

GOWER, Mo. — Eight times a day, a group of nuns files into a chapel in their rural monastery in northwestern Missouri to chant and worship.

Quite unexpectedly, this private, prayerful pursuit has made the Benedictines of Mary a chart-topping recording industry curiosity.

After being named Billboard’s No. 1 Classical Traditional Artist of 2012 and 2013, the nuns released their third album, called “Lent At Ephesus,” on Feb. 11 on the De Montfort Music/Decca/Universal Classics label.

Matt Abramovitz, program director for New York classical radio station WQXR, which has featured the new album on air, said the station didn’t know what to make of it when the nuns’ first record arrived.

“They’re not professional singers,” he said. “They aren’t singing traditional classical repertoire, which is what we normally play, but we gave it a listen, and we were stunned by the quality of the performance and the sincerity. And they really were a hit with our audience.”

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSZQceNbZLA&w=640&h=360]

The latest album includes a capella chants, intricate harmonies and hymns of glory and redemption, all designed to capture the Christian season of preparation before Easter. How this album and the nuns’ earlier releases — Advent at Ephesus and Angels and Saints at Ephesus — came to develop a following among classical and religious music lovers is something the monastery’s prioress can only explain in religious terms.

“With God,” said Mother Cecilia Snell, “all things are possible.”

The 22 nuns, with an average age of 29, live modestly at the monastery surrounded by about 280 acres of northwest Missouri farmland. They model their existence after life in the early sixth-century monasteries and still wear the black and white habits that were largely abandoned half a century ago.

Few get a glimpse into the nuns’ daily life, with the exception of visiting priests who come to the area to recharge. Unlike many U.S. nuns who devote themselves to public pursuits such as teaching or nursing, the nuns’ main focus is chanting each of the 150 poetic works found in the book of Psalms at least once each week in Latin, a language Snell describes as mystical.

De Montfort MusicIn this Nov. 18, 2013 photo, a community of nuns sing at a recording sessions for "Lent at Ephesus" in the chapel at the Priory of The Benedictines of Mary near Gower, Mo. The Benedictines of Mary were named Billboard's Top Traditional Classical Album Artist of 2013, for the second year in a row.

When they aren’t chanting — the task consumes about four hours daily — they speak little so they can better focusing on communing with God. The sisters don’t use the Internet, and Snell does so only in a limited way.

Someone who had heard their chanting suggested they make a CD as a thank-you to benefactors. Snell, a former French horn player in the Columbus Symphony Orchestra in Ohio, acted as the producer.

The pathway to a broader audience began when one of their recordings was given to Monica Fitzgibbons, general manager of De Montfort Music, based in Chicago, and tossed in a pile with other CDs. It might still be there if Fitzgibbons’ young son hadn’t asked to listen to it. Fitzgibbons, a former DreamWorks executive, and her husband, Kevin, a former Sony executive, were hooked.

“We know how to hear things in their raw state and we found it beautiful,” Monica Fitzgibbons said.

The nuns receive prayer requests and notes of thanks from listeners. One recent letter came from a woman who described playing the nuns’ music as her husband was dying and talked about the comfort it brought.

The nuns also use the profit they make from the recordings to help pay off the monastery they moved into in 2010 outside Gower, a town of about 1,500 that is located about 35 miles north of Kansas City.

That is not how God works. He takes that offering seriously and he can multiply it 100-fold, which seems to be what he is doing

Given that their existence is so isolated, Snell said the attention the music is receiving is the “last thing” she thought would happen when she became a nun. The decision meant giving up her hard-earned spot in the symphony, which she said had given her “a little taste of the beauty of making music with others.”

Ultimately, though, playing with an orchestra wasn’t what God was asking of her, she said.

“I know people were thinking, ‘What is she thinking? She is crazy. She is throwing her life away. She is throwing her talents away,'” she said. “But that is not how God works. He takes that offering seriously and he can multiply it 100-fold, which seems to be what he is doing. It is all his plans, his providence.”

Minutes after NFL Draft prospect Michael Sam announced he’s gay, Sports Illustrated ran an article in which several anonymous people working in the NFL threw cold water on the news. It’s a sobering reminder that the environment Sam is about to enter isn’t entirely supportive of gay players.

The most horrible quote came from an unnamed NFL player personnel assistant, who said:

“I don’t think football is ready for it just yet. In the coming decade or two, it’s going to be acceptable, but at this point in time it’s still a man’s man game. To call somebody a [gay slur] is still so commonplace. It’d chemically imbalance an NFL locker room and meeting room.”

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It’s important to note that this isn’t an assistant saying that this is the thought within the league. This is a person speaking for himself.

The phrase “chemically imbalance an NFL locker room” is patently ignorant, and it’s pathetic that he’d voice that sort of bigotry while hiding behind anonymity.

REUTERS/Andrew BurtonAn Occupy Wall Street activist is arrested while protesting in the streets of New York's Financial District on the one-year anniversary of the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York September 17, 2012.

Another person in the article, an assistant coach, called Sam’s decision “not a smart move.” SI reports that “multiple executives” questioned the decision to come out as well.

In all likelihood, Sam will become the first openly gay NFL player when he’s drafted in April.

Sam came out to his Missouri teammates before the 2013 season. They supported him, and the team went 12-2 in the SEC. There were not locker room issues.

The NFL released the following statement in support of Sam:

“We admire Michael Sam’s honesty and courage. Michael is a football player. Any player with ability and determination can succeed in the NFL. We look forward to welcoming and supporting Michael Sam in 2014.”

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“It’s a big deal. No one has done this before. And it’s kind of a nervous process, but I know what I want to be … I want to be a football player in the NFL,” he said in the interviews.

There have been numerous NFL players who have come out after their playing days, including Kwame Harris and Dave Kopay.

Last year, NBA player Jason Collins announced he was gay after the season. Collins, a 35-year-old backup centre, was a free agent and has not signed with a new team this season. MLS star and U.S. national team player Robbie Rogers also came out a year ago.

Division III Willamette kicker Conner Mertens, a redshirt freshman, said last month he was bisexual.

“We admire Michael Sam’s honesty and courage,” the NFL said in statement. “Michael is a football player. Any player with ability and determination can succeed in the NFL. We look forward to welcoming and supporting Michael Sam in 2014.”

Sam said many people at the Senior Bowl all-star game for NFL prospects seemed to know that he was gay.

“I didn’t realize how many people actually knew, and I was afraid that someone would tell or leak something out about me,” he told ESPN. “I want to own my truth. … No one else should tell my story but me.”

I want to thank everybody for their support and encouragement,especially @espn, @nytimes and @nfl. I am proud to tell my story to the world!

Before coming out to all his teammates and coaches, Sam said he told a few close friends and dated another Missouri athlete who was not a football player.

“Coaches just wanted to know a little about ourselves, our majors, where we’re from, and something that no one knows about you,” Sam said. “And I used that opportunity just to tell them that I was gay. And their reaction was like, ‘Michael Sam finally told us.”‘

Missouri coach Gary Pinkel said in a statement Sunday night he was proud of Sam and how he represented the program.

Brandon Wade/The Associated PressMissouri defensive lineman Michael Sam says he wanted to be in control of his own story.

“Michael is a great example of just how important it is to be respectful of others, he’s taught a lot of people here first-hand that it doesn’t matter what your background is, or your personal orientation, we’re all on the same team and we all support each other,” Pinkel said. “If Michael doesn’t have the support of his teammates like he did this past year, I don’t think there’s any way he has the type of season he put together.”

Missouri linebacker Donovan Bonner has been a teammate of Sam’s for five years.

“We knew of his status for 5 years and not one team member, coach, or staff member said anything says a lot about our family atmosphere,” Bonner tweeted.

DALLAS — The pilots of a Southwest Airlines flight that mistakenly landed at the wrong Missouri airport were grounded Monday, less than a day after they touched down at a small airfield that gave them only half as much room as normal to stop the jet.

After passengers were let off the plane Sunday evening, they noticed the airliner had come dangerously close to the end of the runway, where it could have tumbled down a steep embankment if it had left the pavement.

“As soon as we touched down, the pilot applied the brake very hard and very forcibly,” said passenger Scott Schieffer, a Dallas attorney who was among the 124 passengers aboard Southwest Flight 4013 from Chicago’s Midway Airport to the Branson airport. “I was wearing a seatbelt, but I was lurched forward because of the heavy pressure of the brake. You could smell burnt rubber, a very distinct smell of burnt rubber as we were stopping.”

Branson Airport has a runway that is more than 7,100 feet long — a typical size for commercial traffic. The longest runway at Taney County Airport is only slightly more than 3,700 feet because it is designed for small private planes.

After the jet stopped, a flight attendant welcomed passengers to Branson, Schieffer said. Then, after a few moments, “the pilot came on and said, ‘Ladies and gentlemen, I’m sorry to tell you we landed at the wrong airport.'”

Southwest spokesman Brandy King said grounding the pilots involved is common while the airline and federal aviation officials investigate the mistake.

Mark Parent, manager of the smaller airport also known as M. Graham Clark Downtown Airport, described the distance to the drop off as closer to 300 feet. He said the runway is built partly on landfill. At the end there is a “significant drop-off,” with a ravine beneath it, then busy U.S. 65 on the other side.

He said a Boeing 737 had never landed at the small airfield, which opened in 1970 and normally handles light jets, turboprops and small aircraft for the charter, corporate and tourism markets.

No one was around at the airport when the Southwest flight landed. Airport staffers had gone home about an hour earlier but were called back after the unexpected arrival, Parent said.

Brad Hawkins, a spokesman for Dallas-based Southwest, said everyone aboard the jet was safe. He did not know why the plane went to the wrong airport.

Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Tony Molinaro said the agency was investigating, but he declined to elaborate.

Jeff Bourk, executive director of Branson Airport, said the Southwest pilot was in communication with the airport tower, which cleared him to land around 6 p.m. The plane touched down a few moments later at the other airport.

Skies were clear at the time, with the temperature in the 50s, Bourk said.

Passengers were loaded on buses for the 7-mile trip to Branson. Southwest brought in another plane for passengers flying on to Love Fiend in Dallas. That flight departed around 10 p.m., Bourke said.

Hawkins said the aircraft involved in the mistaken landing should be able to take off from the smaller runway, though it was not clear when that would occur.

The minimum runway length needed to take off varies depending on a plane’s weight, the temperature and other factors. Based on Boeing documents, a lightly loaded 737-700 can take off from a runway about the length of the M. Graham Clark airport.

Parent said he had no doubts that the plane would be able to take off safely.

Instances of commercial jets landing at the wrong airport are unusual, but not unheard-of, according to pilots and aviation safety experts. Usually the pilots are flying “visually,” that is, without the aid of the autopilot, in clear weather.

The instances also typically involve low-traffic airports situated close together with runways aligned to the same or similar compass points.

“It’s unlikely that you would have this problem between JFK and LaGuardia or Newark and LaGuardia,” said former National Transportation Safety Board member John Goglia, referring to three New York-area airports. “They are too busy. The airplanes are under total air traffic control until they come down to about 500 feet.”

Wrong-airport landings have been happening about twice a year for the past several years, Goglia said. Safety experts believe there are many more instances of planes that almost land at the wrong airport, but the pilot realizes the mistake and aborts the landing in time.

In the Missouri case, a key question for investigators will be why the second Southwest pilot, who was not flying the plane, did not catch the error in time to prevent the mistaken landing. Typically, the pilot not flying the plane is supposed to be closely monitoring navigation aids and other aircraft systems.

Sunday’s event was the second time in less than two months that a large jet has landed at the wrong airport.

In November, a freight-carrying Boeing 747 that was supposed to deliver parts to McConnell Air Force Base in Wichita, Kan., landed 9 miles north at Col. James Jabara Airport. The company that operated the flight later said in a training video that the crew was skeptical about the plane’s automation after the co-pilot’s flight display had intermittent trouble, and the pilot chose to fly visually when he spotted the brightly lit runway at Jabara.

Last year, a cargo plane bound for MacDill Air Force base in Tampa, Fla., landed without incident at the small Peter O. Knight Airport nearby. An investigation blamed confusion identifying airports in the area, and base officials introduced an updated landing procedure.

]]>http://news.nationalpost.com/news/southwest-airlines-flight-4013-jet-lands-at-wrong-missouri-airport-with-much-shorter-runway/feed3stdIn this Sunday, Jan. 12, 2014 photo provided by Scott Schieffer, passengers exit a Southwest Airlines flight that was supposed to land at Branson Airport in Branson, Mo., but instead landed at Taney County Airport, in Hollister, Mo., that only has about half as much runway. A Southwest spokesman said all 124 passengers and five crew members were safeAP Photo/Springfield News-Leader, Valerie Mosley'Thundersnow' storm buries Kansas, Missouri as deadly mix of winter weather hammers Midwesthttp://news.nationalpost.com/news/thundersnow-storm-buries-kansas-missouri-as-midwest-gets-hit-with-deadly-mix-of-winter-weather
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/thundersnow-storm-buries-kansas-missouri-as-midwest-gets-hit-with-deadly-mix-of-winter-weather#commentsThu, 21 Feb 2013 21:48:30 +0000http://news.nationalpost.com/?p=272557

ST. LOUIS — Blinding snow, at times accompanied by thunder and lightning, bombarded much of the United States’ midsection Thursday, causing whiteout conditions, shutting down large swaths of interstate highways and forcing schools, businesses and even state legislatures to close.

Kansas was the epicentre of the winter storm, with parts of the state buried under 35 centimetres of powdery snow, but winter storm warnings stretched from eastern Colorado through Illinois. Freezing rain and sleet were forecast for southern Missouri, southern Illinois and Arkansas. St. Louis received all of the above — a treacherous mix of snow, sleet and freezing rain.

Several accidents were blamed on icy and slushy roadways, including two fatal accidents. Most schools in Kansas and Missouri, and many in neighbouring states, were closed. Legislatures shut down in Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, Nebraska and Iowa.

AP Photo/Orlin WagnerFirefighters battle a blaze after a car burst into flames trying to make it up a snow-covered hill Thursday.

“Thundersnow” rumbled through Kansas and Missouri earlier Thursday. National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Truett said that’s the result of an unstable air mass, much like a thunderstorm.

“Instead of pouring rain, it’s pouring snow,” Truett said. And pouring was a sound description, with snow falling at a rate of 5 cm per hour or more in some spots.

“It came on fast,” Carlock said as she shovelled around her car. “We’re going to test out traction control on the way home.”

Snow totals passed the foot mark in many places: Monarch Pass, Colo., had 44 cm, Hutchinson, Kan., 35 cm and Wichita, Kan., 33 cm. A few places in far northern Oklahoma saw between 25-35 cm of snow. The National Weather Service said up to 45 cm of snow were possible in central Kansas.

With that in mind, Kansas transportation officials — and even the governor — urged people to simply stay home.

Drivers were particularly warned away from the Kansas Turnpike, which had whiteout conditions. Interstate 70 was also snow-packed and a 150-kilometre stretch of that road was closed between Salina and Hays.

“If you don’t have to get out, just really, please, don’t do it,” Kansas Gov. Sam Brownback said.

Travelers filled hotels rather than skating across dangerous roadways. At the Econo Lodge in WaKeeney, Kan., assistant manager Michael Tidball said the 48-room hotel was full.

But there were a few that came down with cabin fever, like Jennifer McCoy of Wichita. She loaded her nine children – ages 6 months to 16 years – in a van for lunch at Applebee’s.

“I was going crazy, they were so whiny,” McCoy said. They planned to build an igloo after lunch.

AP Photo/Jeff RobersonThe scene in St. Louis Thursday.

Just south of Wichita near the small community of Clearwater, Scott Van Allen had already shoveled the sidewalks and was on his tractor clearing the driveway of the 25 cm of snow. For once, he didn’t mind the task.

“I kind of enjoyed it this time,” he said. “We were certainly needing the moisture terribly.”

The storm brought some relief to a region of the country that has been parched for nearly a year, engulfed in the worst drought in decades. Climatologists say 30 cm of snow is equivalent to about 1 inch of rain, depending on the density of the snow.

Vance Ehmke, a wheat farmer near Healy, Kan., said the nearly foot of snow was “what we have been praying for.”

Near Edwardsville, Ill., farmer Mike Campbell called the snow – or any precipitation – a blessing after a bone-dry growing season in 2012. He hopes it is a good omen for the spring.

“The corn was just a disaster,” Campbell said of 2012.

This isn’t our usual Thursday noon routine

In Colorado, the U.S. Forest Service planned to take advantage of the snow to burn piles of dead trees on federal land.

Near the Nebraska-Kansas border, as much as 20 cm fell overnight, while western Nebraska saw about half of that amount, National Weather Service forecaster Shawn Jacobs said. Areas in western Oklahoma and the Texas Panhandle also had up to 20 cm of snow.

Elsewhere, Arkansas saw a mix of precipitation – a combination of hail, sleet and freezing rain in some place, 15 cm of snow in others. Forecasters warned northern Arkansas could get a half-inch of ice.

Two fatal accidents were attributed to winter weather on Wednesday. In Oklahoma, 18-year-old Cody Alexander of Alex died when his pickup truck skidded into oncoming traffic and hit a truck. And in Nebraska, 19-year-old Kristina Leigh Anne Allen of Callaway died when a SUV lost control, crossed the median and struck her car.

Missouri Gov. Jay Nixon declared a state of emergency Thursday morning. Kansas City International Airport shut down by midmorning; more than 320 flights were canceled at Lambert Airport in St. Louis.

The University of Missouri canceled classes for one of the few times in its 174-year history. At a nearby Wal-Mart, some students passed the ice scrapers and snow melt, heading directly to the aisles containing sleds and alcohol.

“This isn’t our usual Thursday noon routine,” Lauren Ottenger, a senior economics major from Denver, said as she stockpiled supplies.

Alex Sosnowski, a meteorologist for Accuweather, said the storm will push off into the Great Lakes and central Appalachians, and freezing rain could make it as far east and south as North Carolina. He also said a “spin-off” storm was expected to create heavy snow in New England on Saturday, and could push Boston to a February record.

Accuweather said that by the time the storm dies out, at least 24 states will be affected.

A northeast Missouri man accused of killing a man, dismembering the body and setting fires to conceal the crime, hurled the victim’s arms at witnesses shortly before he was arrested, police said.

Paul R. Potter, 49, of Kirksville, was charged Monday in Adair County with second-degree murder, arson and tampering with a motor vehicle and is being held on $1 million bond. Kevin Locke, the public defender assigned to represent Potter, did not immediately return a phone call Tuesday seeking comment.

Authorities are not releasing the victim’s name until relatives have been notified, the Adair County prosecutor’s office said.

[He took ] substantial steps to conceal the crime and divert attention away from the crime

Police officers responding to a call of a vehicle fire Sunday arrived at a public housing development in Kirksville and saw Potter “throw two objects, later identified as human arms, towards the witnesses,” according to a probable cause statement.

Potter was taken into custody “and blood evidence was later collected from his hands,” the statement said.

Fires had been set in two apartments. Officers and firefighters found a dismembered body with additional wounds to the face and sternum in one of the apartments. Both apartments were both strewn with blood.

Blood evidence was later collected from his hands

Potter had taken “substantial steps to conceal the crime and divert attention away from the crime,” the police statement said.

Two vehicles also had been set on fire and police said they found several knives inside and around one of the apartments.

Witnesses told police that Potter had been involved in a nearby disturbance earlier that day.